After 160 years in Rochester, Bausch and Lomb's parent company is moving its headquarters to New Jersey. Another part of our city's history and pride is gone!

Valeant, the parent company of Rochester’s home grown Bausch and Lomb, announced that they would be moving the company’s headquarters to New Jersey.

They also announced that they would be cutting the number of employees. While Valeant announced that they would be maintaining their manufacturing facilities in Rochester, it is probable that a sizable number of cuts will be in their local workforce.

Bausch and Lomb’s history stretches back to 1853, when it was founded in Rochester. It predates the now dying Eastman Kodak Company. the jewel in Rochester’s crown.

Bausch and Lomb is a part of Rochester’s history, part of its pride.

And now, Valeant will be moving its headquarters away.

According to the D&C, Rochester’s incumbent mayor, running for election, stated:

“Rochester has been through this before.”

It seems that this has been a regular statement by the Duffy/Richards administration.

“We are a resilient community and hopefully, whatever the job losses will total, we hope those people will be absorbed by other area businesses and by new entrepreneurs…”

Like what, telemarketing and other minimum wage jobs?

The situation with Bausch and Lomb has been an ongoing concern in Rochester for months.

Did the Duffy/Richards administration even attempt to offer a deal with Valeant to keep their headquarters in Rochester?

Richards has been willing to make devil’s bargains in the form of PILOT plans to bring other businesses to Rochester and to give them loans. Richards has been willing to sell valuable real estate for a dollar or two to wealthy developers who contributed so generously to his campaign warchest.

Did he attempt any of this with Valeant?

Probably not; they didn’t contribute funds to his re-election bid.

And this is an election year, after all.

Richards has claimed that his dubious actions will “create jobs.” They will, of the temporary kind involving construction, whose unions and developers have been so kind to Richards.

Richards is further quoted as saying “Our area is transforming; that we cannot change. But we do have a say in what we transform into. I will ensure that City Hall remains dedicated to growing our local economy and seeing that all of Rochester’s residents have an opportunity for a job and a place in our future.”

The slogan of the Duffy/Richards administration is “Rochester: A City Transformed.”

Do Richards and his ilk mean transformed for the worse and not for the better?

Oddly enough, Richards and his expensive cheerleaders claim that his Democratic opponent for mayor, City Council President the Honorable Lovely A. Warren, Esquire, has never created a job in her career.

That is not exactly true.

When the Genesee Brewery Project was stalled, and it looked like they might have pulled out of Rochester altogether, it was Lovely Warren who met with the president of North American Breweries and made sure the project stayed on track, keeping old jobs here and creating new ones at the popular and successful Brew House.

Lovely Warren tried and succeeded. A small victory to be sure, but what had Richards done to compare with it?

Bausch and Lomb will be moving their headquarters from Rochester, the city that gave birth to it 160 years ago. Jobs will be lost; the local economy will be affected.

Intimate members and associates of the Duffy/Richards administration ( Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, one-time kinda-sorta mayor Carlos Carballada and Mark Peterson ) are pooh-poohing this announcement. We’ve lost other companies headquarters before and, according to them, it’s no big deal.

But they are also the cheerleaders who keep saying that Rochester is getting better. Which has been patently untrue and has been untrue for the last 20 years or so.

Who are they trying to convince, us or themselves?

And Rochester loses another piece of our history.

But electing Richards to a full term as Rochester’s mayor is more important than mere sentiment.

It is only through Richards, after all, that his expensive hangers-on will keep their cushy positions. It is only through Richards that Rochester can be “transformed”…into Buffalo or Detroit.

Keeripes! What will happen next?

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Rich Gardner has been writing about the history, culture and waterways of Upstate New York for years. His articles have appeared in U.S. and Canadian publications, and one book, Learning to Walk. He is an alumnus of Brighton High School and SUNY Geneseo. He operates Upstate Resume & Writing Service in Brighton and recently moved to Corn Hill, where he is already involved in community projects. "I enjoy the 'Aha!' moments of learning new things, conceptual and literal. City living is a great teacher."

Ken Warner grew up in Brockport and first experienced Rochester as a messenger boy for a law firm in Midtown Tower. He recently moved downtown into a loft on the 13th floor of the Temple Building with a view of the Liberty Poll and works in the Powers Building overlooking Rochester’s four corners as Executive Director for UNICON, an organization devoted to bringing economic development to the community. He hopes to use his Rochester Blog to share his observations from these unique views of downtown.